A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

Speed bump

You know what they say about the best laid plans . . . .

mine turned into a migraine! I spent 1/2 the afternoon unconscious and when I did wake up I just couldn’t function. Pixie Dust is here, she’s probably the only reason I’m functioning again tonight. So much energy! She’s working on her scarf while I type this and we’re about to watch a movie. I’m hoping to get a couple more samples done.

Pixie Dust is starting to run out of yarn, one color anyway. She’s knitting a garter stitch scarf with two strands of worsted weight, one pink, one purple. We had a deal, if she completed it by Halloween I’d give her a set of Denise needles. Well, turns out she let 3 other kids try knitting on it over the past few weeks and stitches were dropped, frogging was done to correct (I’d like to point out she recognized the problems and frogged all on her own! I don’t think she even realizes what a big deal that is!) So, since she was trying to infect others with the knitting bug, I gave her until tonight to finish. She’s working like a mad woman trying to finish so she can have her needles. The other part of that deal is that she gets to try spinning on my Jensen Production Wheel once the scarf is done, regardless of when it is finished. She’s knitting between staring at the wheel, especially with all the new fibers in the house. It could be a late night around here!

Off to start the movie! Perhaps tomorrow will be a more productive day . . .

Thank you!

Knitsteph, thank you for the e-card, your brought a smile to my afternoon!

Fibers!

This is the fiber I was telling you about yesterday, the Merino/angora blend. I spun a small sample last night, clearly not my best spinning, but it sure felt nice floating through my fingers!

Today I’m going to test out the others so I can see about having samples of them all. I should have at least the 2 colorways presentable in the next couple of days. Isn’t this fun?

Gotta run!

I’m in LOVE!

I spent today dyeing up an order of yarn and then dyeing up samples of all the new spinning fibers so I can show you! I did a bunch in 1004 The Mean Reds and then the same ones in 1011 Blue Lagoon.

The 1011 is still cooling so I don’t don’t know yet how they look, but the 1004 looks awesome. The one I’m totally, absolutely head over heals for is the 80% Merino/ 20% Angora blend. It is heavenly soft. I can’t wait to spin up the samples. I think my new winter hat for this year is going to be out of this fiber! And I may actually push a few things to be back burner so I’ll have time to make it. I love, love love this fiber. I’m just not sure if I’ll be able to sell it, since I don’t know if I can get myself to let it go out the door!

The other 2 I really like a lot are the Silk and the Merino/Silk blend. The silk just looks so vibrant in these colorways!

I’m not sure that I’m going to offer the spinning fibers in all our colorways, they are a little trickier to dye and some of my techniques that work on yarn don’t work as well on fiber . . . but I plan to have a number of them available in a bunch of different fibers soon. I’m going to try to let them dry (yeah, like thats going to happen!) and spin up samples so we can get at least these 2 colorways off and running . . .

I’m also working on a couple other sample kit ideas. We’ve had great response to the basic beginner kits and I’ve got a couple similar ideas . . . oh, and I’m going to do a “luxury sampler” with some yummy fun things as well . . . . so much fiber, so little time!

Okay, off to weigh out fibers to put together the kits to mail . . . .

stay tuned for more!

This is going to be fun!

Since we’ve had such a great response to the idea of the Mystery Kits we have decided to create a Yahoo! Group for Mystery Knitting!

The group will be for those who are knitting or are interested in knitting our Mystery Kits. We hope it will be a place for knitters to turn to if they get stuck on a project, to pass on ideas for future projects, discuss yarns and colorways and most importantly to show off our finished Mystery Kits!

We also plan to give the group an early “heads up” about new kits and perhaps a few other surprises from time to time . . .

Oh, isn’t this a fun quiz?

Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

The Pricess Bride is one of my favorite movies!

Knitting

I’m working away on the Leaf Lace Shawl today. Now that I have the hang of the repeats this is actually a pretty easy lace pattern and I love the way it looks! Very pretty. This would make a great holiday gift. Of course, this one I’ll have to hold onto as a sample for the business, but this is going quick enough I may just have to knit another as a gift . . . not that you won’t get to see pictures of it too!

Before I do a second one, I’ll likely do a scarf or two from the new Scarf Styles by Pam Allen. There are a number of them that I really like, but I think I may start with the Ruffles Scarf. I’d love to have a sample of it one of my yarns and to be able to offer a kit for it . . .

Inspirations Update

Yesterday I was able to add the first of the spinning kits, our Basic Beginner Spindling Kit. I’m also working on a Deluxe Kit and on deciding which spinning fibers to offer in our handpainted colorways. The colorway decision is going to take some experimentation to decide so it may take a little while.

Speaking of colorways, I’ve got swatches for 3 new “Solos” coming later today, thanks to my MIL for some quick swatching assistance! I just need to block and photograph them so I can work up the pages.

Okay, well, lots to do so I’m off!